Winter 1918. Armistice Day has come and gone, but the nation is still reeling from the ravages of the First World War.
In a sweeping story of social and emotional conflict, female academic Alexandra Milton is ousted from a tranquil university to work in a small, post-war Scottish town. Her task is to archive a unique bequest of 17th-century Spanish documents, but she is attacked by a mysterious intruder. A thief, or is the incident linked to the eccentric benefactress and her mysterious past?
Meanwhile, demobbed soldiers pour back from France in their thousands, but there are no jobs. Town and city are fraught with tension and resentment, which Alexandra struggles to ignore. As she researches a rare volume of satirical interludes, censored at the time for provoking political and religious dissent, she finds eerie similarities with the harsh realities of post-war Britain. To aid her research, she seeks help from the local solicitor. She is drawn to him, but he seems plagued by his own demons and keeps his distance.
Soon convinced that the benefactress died in mysterious circumstances, Alexandra puts aside her personal misgivings and conflicting feelings and digs deeper, despite the fact that she suspects she is being watched. Using her wits to solve the strangest of puzzles, she is drawn back to Glasgow, but then the dockworkers vote to strike. Fearing a revolution as bloody as the recent violence in Russia and Germany, the nation holds its breath as battle lines are drawn. Flung out of her safe world into the turbulent city, Alexandra finds herself at the heart of the maelstrom and must rely on old friends and new allies to avert political disaster.
